Former president Bill Clinton says it might be necessary to blow up the leak. Getty

June 29, 2010

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Bill Clinton suggested the military may have to blow up the BP oil well. Speaking at a media forum in Cape Town, South Africa this weekend, the former president called the still-leaking well a "geological nightmare," and raised the specter of sending "the Navy down deep to blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris." Clinton added that we "don't have to use nuclear weapons," as some have suggested. This is a "big 'win'" for the "bomb-minded armchair engineers," says Jim Newell in Gawker. Actually, blowing up the well might be legally tricky, says Allapundit in Hot Air. "Roughly 95 percent of the available oil in the field is still underground, and BP could potentially "sue to keep American bombs away from the leak." What we really need is an increase in international help — "faster, please." Watch Bill Clinton's remarks below: